


Your flesh and bone

by betweenacts



Series: the juggernaut [2]
Category: Doctor Who RPF
Genre: F/M, Tatennant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-05
Updated: 2012-09-05
Packaged: 2017-11-13 15:40:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/505072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/betweenacts/pseuds/betweenacts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If Josephine closed her eyes she could still see Catherine as she did the first time she saw her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Your flesh and bone

**Author's Note:**

> Teela is still magical, and the title is from "When you have a child" by Reba McEntire.

If Josephine closed her eyes she could still see Catherine as she did the first time she saw her.  
  
Josephine always thought about how weird it was that today’s babies opened their eyes and smiled so fast; in her time, it took weeks until the baby opened their eyes for the first time and even longer for them to smile.  
  
But if she was really honest, she was absolutely sure Catherine had smiled that first time she held her baby girl in her arms.  
  
Catherine was the best kid a mother could ask for. She was quiet and funny; she would do little impressions in the living room, and help clean the house even though she didn’t really need to. When she was small she had one tantrum or two, but children always do, nothing that pretending to be unconscious and a little ketchup couldn’t help.  
  
Josephine had always thought it was an overreaction when her mother told her she now would live for two, that this was what good mothers should do. And then Catherine fell and hurt her knee, really badly, and there was lots of blood involved. Josephine saw, in her head, casts and surgery, but a Band-Aid and two kisses were enough.  
  
She never got into trouble, never complained much. She put in her mind that she would become vegetarian because of the animals when she was nine, and never regretted it. She never took one sip of alcohol, even when she went partying as a teenager. But she always preferred staying home and listening Frankie Goes to Hollywood, or going to the Theatre. It made Josephine’s heart swell, how much love her little girl had for the Theatre.  
  
It hurt Josephine to the core every time Catherine didn’t get in that course she wanted; it took a little piece of Josephine’s heart every time she had to give up. Oh how she hated every boy who ever hurt Catherine.  
  
She never talked about it, but if she ever saw that man- the one who drank too much- she’d kill him for every pain he caused.  
  
Then there were stand-up gigs and long tours to distant places. And finally, there was Twig. Twig who took care of Catherine and gave her a child, and didn’t leave when things got rough. He never left.  
  
As Catherine’s career became successful, Josephine got prouder; right when she thought that her daughter couldn’t make her prouder she’d do something to amaze her.  
  
Josephine was probably the first one to know, even before Catherine, that something would happen between the two new friends. When Catherine met David something changed in the way Catherine talked, and the romantic inside Josephine realized her daughter had met “the one”.  
  
  
Josephine saw her little girl, who was no longer little, happy as she had never been. Josephine wanted to ask, or at least make a more direct comment that would prompt her daughter into admitting there was something going on; but Twig was in the picture, so Josephine would only talk, repeatedly, about just how perfect David Tennant was.  
  
As the years went by, she saw her daughter change in a blink of an eye; nothing ever satisfied or completed her. And with that, Catherine’s relationship with Twig started crumbling down before everyone’s eyes, in silent decay.  
  
He left with no fight and moved to a house nearby so they both would always be close to Erin. Catherine didn’t even cry.  
  
And then David’s girlfriend, that little sweetheart, was pregnant and they became engaged. Catherine appeared to be indifferent to all that. Suddenly Jason came into the picture and it was very confusing, not that Josephine would ever complain; Jason was a handsome, sweet man that took very good care of her daughter, and was caring with her granddaughter. But it was confusing nonetheless.  
  
By then Catherine and David were seeing each other every day because of the play, and Josephine knew whatever they had during Doctor Who was still very much there.  
  
Josephine had her own life, her friends, her shop. But just like any mother, there was a part of her always on duty, always expecting the worst so she’d always be ready to go and help her daughter. But such a call never came.  
  
One day, Josephine got to Catherine’s house with some groceries - there was no reason behind that, she just decided to buy a few things, pop in her daughter’s house and make dinner for both of them; she put them over the counter and called Catherine many times. She opened the door of her daughter’s bedroom fearing she was going to barge in something a mother never wants to see, but found her crying, sobbing, and alone.  
  
She wished deep down she could put on a Band-Aid and kiss the pain away, just like she did so many times.  
  
“What happened,” she asked, hugging her daughter.  
  
“Oh, Mum...” That worried Josephine more than anything, it was not like Catherine to call anyone by a nick name or saying ‘mum’ and ‘dad’ except when things were going terribly wrong. Josephine recalled what it felt like every time Catherine failed to get into University, but this felt worse, a lot worse.  
  
“I’ve made such a mess of my life and I don’t even have someone special I can call mine.”  
  
“You have Jason.”  
  
“No one has Jason.”  
  
“You have David.”  
  
“That one was nearly mine.” She sniffed before she started crying again, tears of loneliness that cut Josephine to the core. She rocked her child in her arms as if she was still a baby as she hummed a Rodgers and Hammerstein song.  
  
Josephine wished she could take all of Catherine’s pain away, but she couldn’t do much more than pray that someday, this story would have something that would resemble a happy ending.


End file.
